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We started at a
high level. Tim sees a major shift in enterprise collaboration happening every
twenty years: the business telephone exchange was introduced in the 1950s, the
FAX in the1970s, email in the1990s and now activity streams – through tools
like Socialcast – are starting to play a major role right on time, in 2010. I
think there is certainly a movement beyond siloed email to the more transparent
enterprise 2.0. Activity streams may be the tool that carries this transparency
throughout the enterprise to reap the opportunity for increased awareness that
enterprise 2.0 brings.

Socialcast is focusing its
efforts on helping large enterprises, in particular those of 10,000 or more employees,
increase their collaboration capabilities. I think this is a smart move given
their capabilities and the market. To support this strategy they have made a
number of moves, including enhanced features that we will look at: Outlook and
SharePoint integration, and increased support for mobile devices. BlackBerry
support has been added to their existing iPhone support, with an interface
geared to align with BlackBerry features. All of these should appeal to the
large enterprise user. They now refer to their role in the large enterprise as
providing the enterprise activity stream engine or EASE. This capability can be
deployed as a SaaS, a private cloud, or on-premises.

New features include the
addition of automated updates to the stream based on user actions. Through
their REST API they can mine these automated updates from almost any enterprise
applications such as a CRM, data warehouse, or logistics system. Users
operating within these systems can also submit manual updates in the
traditional Twitter style without having to go into the Socliacast application
itself. When someone replies to an update the reply is called a comment and it
starts a threaded discussion on the topic.

In addition to the
traditional microblogging follow/unfollow capability, there is the option for a
universal update stream that users within a particular group can automatically
follow using the enterprise’s LDAP. Socialcast can play in the foreground as
the common interface to what is happening across many applications. Or it can
operate in the background allowing users to stay within those applications.
Email is one example of this. You can have Socialcast updates go into the email
system, or you can use the email system to update Socialcast.

To further support this
email integration, Socialcast has integrated with Outlook. Now Socialcast
messages can be part of your Outlook folder and you never have to leave Outlook
to use Socialcast. Currently, there is full support for Outlook 2003 and 2007,
and 2010 will be supported soon. In the sample screenshot below, you can see
Socialcast as part of the Outlook folder scheme and see Socialcast in operation
with Outlook.

Tim said that the Outlook
integration has proven to be a useful way to get late adopters within
enterprise organizations participating in microblogging; people start within
Outlook and many migrate to using Socialcast directly to access additional
features. The SharePoint integration brings comprehensive microblogging
capability to SharePoint and should provide a similar adoption path. There is
support for SharePoint 2003, 2007, and 2010.

One
of the major new areas is the addition of enhanced analytics that the company refers
to as Socialcast Business Intelligence.Some of its many features include organizational network analysis tools to identify
the informal connections between individuals and groups. Socialcast
reports on posting,
commenting, and “liking” activity over time, offering insight into conversation
initiation and response behaviors. There is also lurking and listening activity analysis. The interactivity patterns
between users are identified, showing proactive and reactive relationships with
others in their social graph.

Moments of transition from passive to active usage
are also recognized, allowing you to find people and topics that start
conversations. There is interactive visualization of all community discussions, surfacing the
most active messages based on user interaction, popular posting times and dates.Here is an example of an
activity analysis screen that shows a glimpse of overall network activity and top
contributors, active teams and groups.

Here is an example of a deep dive into a user's activity, showing
where he or she fits into the social graph.

Here is an example of the measurement of trending topics, important
conversations, and influential members.

User roles are identified
and defined as follows:broker: spurs conversations that
include input from a wide variety of users form different business units and
departments, central connector:
spurs diverse discussions from within their business unit or department, and peripheral player: engages infrequently
and primarily with people from their business unit or department. User activity levels are also reported
on.

I was impressed with the
depth and variety of analytics that Socialcast has conceived. I think it
represents a strong step in the right direction of realizing the transparency
that Enterprise 2.0 can provide.

Comments

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nSynergy supplies collaborative software solutions for a great variety of clients in many different industries. They are deploying SharePoint solutions to companies in a variety of industries, adding their own customizations and enhancements. They have SharePoint specialists and developers in a number of locations, and can provide a broad range of SharePoint-related services and solutions. For more information, please visit nSynergy.com or mail to info@nsynergy.com.

This type of technology looks like it greatly increases communication ability at the office, and with clients. As a business consultant, this type of software is exactly what I am looking for to increase productivity.

The measurement of trending topics menu is amazing and I want one for my business site!! :) Would love to read an how to regarding this options, you know, just a bit guidance on how to work these apps etc.